One of the challenges of this lifestyle is taking time off, or scheduling deload weeks so we avoid injuries. Burnout isn’t really an issue since we’re doing what we love. Injuries however, injuries are a constant threat.

I’m going to shoot you straight, I don’t really know how to take it easy or take time off. I’ve never been able to to do it properly. Sometimes though, the injury is so great that we don’t have a choice. We have to stay off the mat, out of the ring, weight-room, or away from the range. Most of us are guilty of being all in or all out. We can’t deal with halfway anything. Injured to the degree that we can’t train usually means we’re all out. We don’t go to the gym because it’s too frustrating to see everyone else rolling, working their standup, pushing their numbers up in the weight-room, or improving their times on conditioning work. We’re happy they are progressing, yet not so happy we’re stagnating while we wait for this injury to heal.

This a really dangerous time for us. We run the risk of getting out of the habit of doing all the things we do. Six to eight weeks away from the gym is enough time for other habits to sneak in, and take over. If we’re not careful we’ll soon be spending our nights on the couch, watching TV, drinking and eating garbage, and undermining all of our hard work. We can make excuses, we can’t train because we’re hurt. It’s frustrating to sit on the sidelines, etc., etc…

Or we can be that team member that still comes to class to watch, take notes, mentally keeping ourselves active in the game. When we help where we can around the gym it goes a long way towards building team, as well as maintaining our habit of driving to the gym several days or nights a week. We’re helping our team, and our team is helping us by keeping us mentally engaged. Yes, it’s still frustrating because it’s not the same as being out there doing what we love. However, climbing back on that horse is much easier when we haven’t forgotten how to get to the barn.